Food Smokers and Smoking Tips/Tricks/Techniques

Yup I'll give it a few more tries before I do anything too drastic

 

When setting up for a cook, as long as you have 5 times as many unlit briquettes as lit briquettes, you'll be able to hit 225-250 for hours. After doing that a couple times, you'll know just how many briquettes that translates to in your particular rig without wasting a bunch.

 

I pulled the pork for sandwiches. You could try doing beer caned chicken in the smoker.

 

@horstuff thank you for the recommendations on the ThermoWorks Smoke and Thermapen! Soooo nice being able to check temps from my recliner instead of the the WSM lid...

 

I like that cast iron grate divided into thirds a LOT better than the quarters one I have for my kettle.



Never did any of the inserts for it and it is around 7 years old and pretty rusted out now. I went back to the hinged grate for most everything but if I had one in third sections might be tempted to go back to the CI grates.

Last night grilled a steak, I still sear and slide instead of slide and sear. Because never get the heat up as high as when you first dump the coals. Seems like the last couple of years do my steaks like many do briskets. Just salt and fresh cracked pepper.



Still use the gas grill for some things. Would rather do corn on the cob soaked in a lake in a burlap bag and then thrown in a fire. But soak and grill with the smoke box and some chips the only time I use chips. Carrots and onions with butter and brown sugar. And side burner with bacon, onion and mushrooms. And it started to rain of course.



It does help with the timing for me but that is because I'm used to it.



Put the meat in the fridge to dry last night. Still need to season the pizza screens and will use the gas grill for that. Then fire up the WSM in a little bit for jerky today.

 

You're welcome. Aside from being easier, it's accurate. The lid thermometer is worthless, only good for plugging the hole they drilled to put it there.

 

Ribs done! Butt still cooking...

 

What type of wood and how much did you use?

 

Hickory chunks. Buried about 4 fist size pieces in the charcoal and put another 4 fist sized pieces on top. Charcoal lit using the minion method and the ribs went on at room temp. Butt was still a little cold in the center when it went on...

 

Definitely using enough wood. Maybe next time put ribs on cold or damn near, smoke ring might end up better. Not that it really matters but is cool to see Water in pan also helps a bit.

 

I'll try putting them on cold next time. Water pan was filled with hot tap water right after dumping charcoal and right before putting meat on. The rack temps climbed pretty quick...

 

Ok. Most important part... how are they? Taste good, right amount of rub? How did you test to see when they were done?

 

They're good and moist. Can definitely taste the smoke. I put a medium amount of rub on them knowing they'd be wet from the BBQ sauce.

To test for doneness, I pulled two bones apart from the center of each rack. Little bit of resistance before tearing. Meat comes off the bone clean.

I'll mark this down as a success in my book but I will try a few things different next time.

 

I've heard about the water in pan thing. Where do I put this pan and how much water?

 

Sounds like a definite success.

 

Put a disposable foil pan under the meat, just keep enough water in so it doesn't all evaporate. Helps a bit with smoke, but it's not always necessary. I only do it with ribs. All of this is trial and error in my experience. Who knows, maybe next week I'll use water pan on pork shoulder

 

Smoker fired up. Meat seasoned and put on.

 

Seeing all these pics is making me hungry. I just ordered the wife (aka said pretty please) to go get some thick cut pork chops for this evening. Would do something bigger, but we just got home from a trip and have nothing that is thawed. I plan to rub them and let em rest a while, then teverse sear to done. Still have fresh broccoli from the garden to go with, and maybe some wild rice.

 

How long in advance do I want to apply my rub before throwing it on the smoker?